Microsoft Mobile 2010 Coming To A Smartphone Near You

Just about everyone who cares now knows that Office 2010 is well underway and they may even have downloaded the Tech Preview for testing. The PC isn't the only platform getting improvements with 2010 though. Microsoft Mobile 2010 is a series of programs and services for smartphones and had a number of new features as well as enhancements to existing one's.

Just about everyone who cares now knows that Office 2010 is well underway and they may even have downloaded the Tech Preview for testing. The PC isn't the only platform getting improvements with 2010 though. Microsoft Mobile 2010 is a series of programs and services for smartphones and had a number of new features as well as enhancements to existing one's.Windows Mobile obviously gets most of the benefits since Microsoft writes the Office applications that go on WinMo devices. First of all, everything now has the large finger friendly menus we've seen in various WinMo 6.5 screen shots, so the need for a stylus has virtually disappeared for touch screen devices.

Email still has the standard list view but it now includes a conversation view that groups your messages by thread rather than just by date, name or subject. This makes it easier to follow longer threads of messages that may span a few days. You can switch between the two views with few taps on the screen.

Excel, PowerPoint and Word still exist on the device as well and support the new formats introduced in Office 2007. They don't have the power of their desktop counterparts, but have enough juice to let you view most elements of a document and make minor changes and forward it on.

What is new is the Mobile Document Viewers. This is designed to be used with many smartphones, including the iPhone and Blackberry. With the viewers, you open and view documents on the server. The document is rendered on the server much like a web page, but the viewers are specifically designed to handle Office files. I don't know if there is a way to get the actual file on your device or not, either directly or by having the server email it to you.

Communicator Mobile, which houses contacts on a WinMo device, merges many features from Windows Messenger. You can now see the status of your contacts to know if they are online and available for a chat or if it is better to shoot them an email that they can read later.

Our data shows these innovators using digital technology in two key areas: providing better products and cutting costs. Almost half of them expect to introduce a new IT-led product this year, and 46% are using technology to make business processes more efficient.

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